UH men's basketball team holds on for overtime win at San Jose State

A big second-half run and a career-high scoring effort by Joston Thomas carried the Hawaii men's basketball team to an 83-81 overtime win at San Jose State on Saturday.

Third-place UH (13-9, 5-3 Western Athletic Conference) held on despite several misses at the free-throw line that could have iced it both in regulation and in overtime.

Thomas scored 29 points on 12-for-16 shooting and grabbed 12 rebounds to lead UH. Zane Johnson scored all of his 19 points in the second half and overtime. He shot 5-for-10 on 3-pointers — including the go-ahead trey in OT — moving him past Alika Smith and Carl English into second place on the UH career 3s list at 165.

Center Vander Joaquim added 17 points and 10 rebounds.

UH trailed 54-40, but used a 16-0 run to go ahead midway through the second half.

Johnson hit the go-ahead 3 to make it 77-74 with 2:17 left in overtime.

Johnson made two free throws with 22 seconds left for an 82-78 lead, but James Kinney made a 3 with 10 seconds left and took a foul on UH.

Joaquim missed two clinching free throws, but this time Kinney missed a layup and Joaquim got the board, making one of two for the final margin.

SJSU's desperation heave was off the mark and the Spartans remained winless in WAC play (7-16 overall, 0-8 WAC).

Miah Ostrowski had a desperation shot to win it in regulation coming out of a timeout, but it was off the mark.

SJSU controlled the entire first half and early on in the second period. UH cut it to 46-40 on consecutive 3s by Johnson, but SJSU answered with back-to-back triples and a dunk to push its lead to its largest at 54-40 with 12:45 to play.

The 'Bows pushed back. Consecutive baskets by Ostrowski and Thomas brought UH to within 54-51 with 8:19 to play, forcing a SJSU timeout.

Zane Johnson tied it up at 54 on his third 3-pointer of the game with 7:29 to play, then Thomas gave UH its first lead on a fast-break dunk at 56-54 to cap the 16-0 run.

Thomas put UH up 58-56 with 5:36 to play, then Johnson gave the 'Bows a 60-58 lead on two free throws with 4:50 to go.

Johnson fed Thomas for a fast-break layup and the guard followed with his fourth 3 of the half for a 66-60 lead with just over 3 minutes left.

Joaquim hit two free throws for a 68-62 lead, but the Spartans came back with five straight points to make it 68-67 with 1:30 left.

SJSU's Keith Shamburger missed a go-ahead 3, and Thomas was fouled with 46 seconds left, making both foul shots for a 70-67 lead.

The Spartans got a layup from Wil Carter with 17 seconds left, then took another foul on Thomas. Carter led SJSU with 22 points and 12 rebounds.

Thomas missed the free throws with 11 seconds left and SJSU's Keith Shamburger got fouled with 3.8 seconds left, making one of two to tie it at 70.

Joaquim hit a buzzer-beating jumper to bring UH within 33-26 at halftime.